Known architectures of avionic systems, notably of aircraft flight management systems, comprise two modules: a core module and a supplementary module. The core module is provided for implementing generic functionalities related to a management of a flight of an aircraft, and the supplementary module is provided for implementing supplementary functionalities specific to an entity to which the aircraft belongs.
Such architectures allow an operator (e.g., an equipment manufacturer) to develop the generic functionalities of the core module and another operator (e.g., an aircraft manufacturer or an airline company) to develop the supplementary functionalities of the supplementary module independently of each other. In this way, the developments of the flight management system can be simplified.
The update operations to the slight management system most frequently relate solely to certain supplementary functionalities that implement algorithms associated with the equations of the flight. During these update operations, the modifications carried out are most often minor in that they do not involve an in-depth modification of the supplementary functionality. That is, the modification does not change the behavior from the perspective of other generic or supplementary functionalities. Rather, the modification involves solely to a change or corrections of the code of the algorithm or algorithms that the supplementary functionality implements. For example, a supplementary functionality may be modified for a redefinition of the algorithm in order to make it more specific to the entity to which the aircraft belongs.
At present, even for such a minor modification of an algorithm, the operator must ensure the entirety of the modified supplementary functionality is compatible with the generic functionalities provided by the core module and with certain other supplementary functionalities with which the modified supplementary functionality has to interact. The result of this is that at present, any minor update of a supplementary functionality demands significant effort and time.